Feast II: Sloppy Seconds (2008)

Director: John Gulager

Starring: Jenny Wade, Diane Goldner

Run Time: 97 mins

Certificate: 18

Plot Outline: It's the morning after the initial attack and the flesh-eating monsters have made it to the local town. Those lucky enough to have survived the previous night at the bar head into town where they join up with a group of locals including an all-female biker gang and a pair of Mexican midget wrestlers.

The Review: I loved Feast. I was pretty gushing about it in my review and thought it was a total breath of fresh air to the stagnant dross that has been blocking up my DVD player for months. With one eye on bending the rules and the other eye on sticking to them, it served up a funny, frightening and pretty unforgettable feast of comedy and horror. Full of twists, turns, and double twists and turns, it kept me hooked from the start until the very end. So it was inevitable that sequels would follow and two of them were shot back-to-back with each other. Would they follow the same formula as the first one or do what sequels do best and tarnish it's reputation?

Suffice to say that Feast II: Sloppy Seconds does neither. It doesn't do the original justice by a long shot but it's in no way a rubbish sequel. The main problem with Feast II: Sloppy Seconds is that it just doesn't have the same freshness as the original. That one was unpredictable and kept the twists and turns coming. You didn't expect it because not many films nowadays try something different - they prefer to play it safe and stick to formula. But here you're second-guessing everything that is going on and not entirely trusting the clichés and stereotypes to live up to their expectations. It's a victim of the original's success. That being said, there are nowhere near as many "OMG" moments in this one as there were before. There are a couple of inspired moments including the infamous baby scene which you will either love or hate depending on your penchant for bad taste. I won't spoil it but I absolutely loved it. Does that make me sick or a bit weird? Not really because - get this - it's only a film and I can draw the line between fiction and reality. The scene is so way over the top and totally unexpected that it's hard not to get a kick out of it. However the moments of inspiration are too few and far between. I got the sense that by filming back-to-back with Feast III: The Happy Finish, they had too few cool ideas to stretch over them both. So what you get is a lot of the same thing - characters deliberately putting themselves in danger by moving around the town from building to building and simply giving the monsters a chance to get at them. And every now and then there is a decent scene (monster dissection anyone?) before more building-to-building running and fumbling. Also being the middle part of a trilogy doesn't help as there is no real beginning and end to the film so it's best to watch it either straight after the first one or watch the third one straight after.

The new characters that are introduced aren't too bad which is one of the film's strengths. Only two of the survivors from the original return (no doubt the others didn't want to reprise their roles) including Bartender who was one of the best characters in Feast. He's got some great lines once again and isn't afraid to tell it how it is. But quite why Honey Pie from the original returns here is beyond me as she spends most of the film off on her own away from the group. The Mexican midget wrestlers are pretty good and add some comedy to the proceedings. And there's also a used car salesman, his wife and his employee who is having an affair with his wife. The all-female biker gang is there to provide a few extra bodies for the monsters and also the token nudity as the film finds an excuse to get the hotter chicks naked later on. Various other characters are introduced but don't tend to last too long at the hands of the monsters. This time they're seen in all of their glory in the daylight and they do look rather silly at times. At least the fleeting glimpses you get of them in the original to begin with are enough to keep you guessing. These monsters are still randy and they love throwing their manhoods around especially at the camera! They've got a lot of fluid in them too so be prepared for not only buckets of blood and gore but nasty monster love juice!

Final Verdict: They seem to have piled in more bad taste and shock value to this sequel in an attempt to top the original and it's almost as memorable as a result. Feast II: Sloppy Seconds doesn't work nearly as well as it should do but it's still a quality sequel which will appeal to those looking for a low-brow waste of time. One of the ultimate anti-PC brigade films of all time!

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